This disclosure relates to computing and communication devices. More particularly, a system, method, apparatus, and graphical user interface are provided for facilitating navigation of electronic content displayed on a device, in a manner that is independent of the content displayed at a given time.
Many types of devices are used to access and peruse electronic content. Some of them, such as mobile devices, have limited area for displaying content, displaying controls for navigating the content, and for receiving input commands regarding navigation of the content.
Typically, a first screen or page of information is displayed and a user scrolls, pans or otherwise manipulates the device to alter the displayed information until an item of interest is shown or until the user locates and activates a link to some other information. Thus, to access a given page or set of information, the user may need to navigate through one or more previous pages using a sequence of actions that depends on what is displayed. In other words, the manner in which the user navigates the content depends on what is currently displayed, what links (if any) the displayed content includes, and where those links are displayed (e.g., which determines how much the user must scroll or pan the content in order to access the links).